Book 3, Chapter 125: Internal And External Affairs
While driving back, Chen Chuan took a detour to Black Orchid Co.’s base. Just as Nian Fuli said, Enclosed Shore had claid the place.
As a firearms manufacturer, Enclosed Shore’s security was top-notch. It had an even more elite security team than Black Orchid Co.. Occasionally, armored patrol cars drove past, and there were personnel transport vehicles and armored cars parked on the square, ready to leave at any mont.
Enclosed Shore was different from Black Orchid Co., though. This was just a base for it. The company didn’t have any businesses or factories near the city nor any communications with the higher-ups of the city.
Their main task was to protect Farsight Port and the building of the railroad in the north. It seed like they were also getting ready for sothing.
After leaving the place, Chen Chuan went to the telegraph station and sent a telegram to He Xiaoxing.
He had told Chen Chuan before that there was a martial arts technique for the Furnace Breathing Technique, but only Third Limit martial artists could learn it. Chen Chuan had reached it, so he decided to ask whether he could learn that technique.
With that done, he went back ho and saw his cousins sprawled over the sofa while cradling their faces as they played ludo on the board he brought for them.
Dawncall was perched on the sofa and seed to be watching the board as well. When it saw Chen Chuan, it perked up and chirped at him before flapping its wings and jumping down. It flew to Chen Chuan and climbed up his shoulder.
Chen Chuan went to the phone and saw a note with so words written in childish handwriting.
Ding Jiao called at 3.
Nian Lu had clearly written it, which brought a smile to his face. Nian Mo was smart too, but he was too playful for his own good and didn’t know how to spell quite right just yet.
Chen Chuan called Ding Jiao back, and the mont the call went through, Ding Jiao said that he had gotten the gang together. They were going to gather tomorrow and go kayaking as well as watch a movie.
Chen Chuan agreed to it.
Since he was on a break, he was going to relax.
He had a feeling that after he went back to Central City, it was going to be a long ti before he could rest again.
After hanging up, he was about to leave when the phone rang. He picked it up and asked who was on the other end when he heard a cheerful voice.
“I heard that you’re back, Chen Chuan!”
“Changan? Yeah. I ca back yesterday.” Chen Chuan grinned at hearing his voice.
“Why didn’t you tell
ahead of ti that you’re coming back? I have to treat you to a al no matter what, you know? Why are you treating
like a stranger?” Wei Changan complained.
With a chuckle, Chen Chuan said, “I’m not. I was just thinking about calling you and the rest of our group. I want to have a al with everyone.”
“That’s easy. We’ve been eting up even after you went to Central City. We sotis work together on missions too. Let
handle this. Once I’ve got everyone to agree on a date, I’ll call you,” Wei Changan promised.
“Okay. I’ll leave it to you,” Chen Chuan said.
They exchanged a few more words before Chen Chuan hung up and went to his room to take so calming dicine before practicing his breathing technique. Almost imdiately, he felt much more energized.
Then, he took out The Studies of the Unusual from his luggage and started reading.
Once the intimidating aura around him subsided, he no longer brought terror to people with his presence alone. Instead, he appeared even livelier, and his mind got sharper than before.
Since Chen Chuan didn’t have a Realm Pass to convert the text, he could only read the text in its original, vertical version. After a while, he found himself getting used to it and even decided that reading it this way gave it more nuance.
Most of the text spoke about how to fight against the abnormal sights. Many of the things the people saw in the past were strange and bizarre, and their stories were terrifying. Despite it being sumr, goosebumps appeared on his skin just from reading about them.
So people reacted to the sights in rather interesting ways.
One of them was an amazing person called Liu Cai. Chen Chuan especially loved the articles he wrote. Liu Cai loved sleeping, and he even did his martial arts training in his sleep. Because of this, his body would sotis move on its own. There were even tis when he sleepwalked out of his room. Hence, all the abnormal sights he encountered were when he was half-asleep.
One ti, when his mind was still addled by sleep, he heard rustling coming from nearby, as if a robber had broken in, but Liu Cai had been sleeping, so he didn’t want to bother with them.
Suddenly, soone yelled into his ear that the house was on fire, and he saw a fire raging behind him. He could even sll the scent of sothing burning, but he only grumbled, “If anyone is going to get burnt, it’d be . It has nothing to do with you.”
Then, he went back to sleep.
When he woke up, he found that the house had never been on fire, but everything in his house had been stolen. Liu Cai laughed at that, completely unbothered.
Another ti, soon after Liu Cai went to bed, he felt soone touching his body with cold hands and whispering sweet nothings into his ears, but his wife had passed away a long ti ago, and he had never gotten together with anyone else. He had also dismissed all his servants, so how could there possibly be anyone sleeping with him?
When he woke up, he found the door wide open, and a large snake slithering around on the floor. Liu Cai smiled and gave the snake a fist-and-palm salute. “Thanks for not eating , friend.”
Yet another ti, he dreamt that he was floating above the clouds. Ahead of him were wine, food, and beautiful won, all within arm’s reach, but he was so lazy that he didn’t reach out for them. When he woke up, he found himself lying beside a cliff on the top of a mountain. If he had reached out, he would have plunged to his death.
Liu Cai was open-minded and optimistic. When the royal family heard of his reputation, they asked him to write so passages for the book.
Being one of the authors wasn’t a good thing, since the authors usually saw those very sa abnormal sights again while recalling their experiences. So of the people reading them also saw those abnormal sights.
The abnormal sights seed to be attracted to each other, which led to the authors usually losing their minds or dying while writing the book. Liu Cai was one of the few who wrote in the book and lived afterwards.
Chen Chuan could tell, based on his actions, that Liu Cai was completely unbothered and ignored all the abnormal sights, which was how he managed to avoid getting affected by these external disturbances.
Chen Chuan reflected on himself. While he had managed to steady his mind, and the frequency at which the abnormal sights appeared had decreased, they would continue to happen as long as he wanted to get stronger.
These things only appeared when his emotions fluctuated a lot, which ant that if he could control his emotions, he could avoid them, but he couldn’t be too deliberate about it. The more attention he paid to this, the more abnormal sights were going to appear.
He also had to maintain absolute calm while fighting. Then, he wouldn’t lose his composure while going up against soone strong.
While reading, the sun set, and Nian Fuli ca back from the Constabulary. Yu Wan imdiately saw that he was feeling down, so she sent Nian Mo and Nian Lu outside to play before asking worriedly, “What’s wrong?”
Nian Fuli took out a cigarette and took a puff from it. “The new head instructor got into another argunt with Chief Guan.”
“That has nothing to do with you, does it?” Yu Wan asked.
“At the end of the day, I work in the Constabulary, and I can’t avoid it. Head Instructor Che approached
twice. He also approached Wei Laohu in private. It’s clear that he wants the constables’ support,” Nian Fuli grumbled.
“But this head instructor has only been here for a few months, hasn’t he? Will anyone support him?” Yu Wan asked in surprise.
Nian Fuli took another drag of the cigarette before exhaling slowly. “This guy has so tricks up his sleeves. The mont he took office, he tested the constables. If you failed once, you got your salary deducted. If you failed twice, you got derit points. Fail thrice, and you’re fired. Still, he’s not the one who gets to decide who passes the tests or not. Even so, a lot of constables couldn’t handle the pressure and joined his side.”
“Does he even have the right to fire the constables?” Yu Wan was puzzled. The constables were unusually united. If the chief, deputy chief, and the captains didn’t agree to the test, it wouldn’t have passed.
“He cannot fire anyone for now, but he can send people to the county towns. Deputy Chief Shang supports him in this regard.
Chen Chuan walked in at that mont and heard what Nian Fuli said. After giving it so thought, he understood just how effective this thod was.
The county towns only had a primitive Security Bureau, and its mbers were all hoping to beco part of Yangzhi City’s Constabulary. If the constables were sent to the county towns, their salaries and statuses would be greatly reduced, and no constable would be able to accept this difference in treatnt.
“When Head Instructor Che took office, he brought with him a group of people, and he put his moles into each squad to serve as their instructors. His excuse? To increase the constables’ fighting strength. Even though this is within his right, anyone can tell that he’s trying to make things go his way,” Nian Fuli continued.
“Can’t Chief Guan do anything about this?” Yu Wan asked worriedly.
Nian Fuli shook his head. “Chief Guan is resourceful and shrewd, and he cares about us, but he’s too righteous and can’t bring himself to be cruel to be kind during crucial monts. If the forr chief were around, this wouldn’t have happened, and he would have taken care of this ss before it got this bad. No matter how good that head instructor is, he wouldn’t have been able to cause even the slightest splash.”
The forr chief might have been ruthless, but he placed a lot of importance on the Constabulary’s interests. He wouldn’t have let any outsiders stick their noses into the Constabulary’s business.
“I think it’s because Chief Guan doesn’t want things to go sour between him and the head instructor. After all, the Constabulary needs the head instructor to protect the important people inside. But if they’ve sent Instructor Wen away and brought this new guy over, it ans that the governnt wants him to do sothing,” Chen Chuan said after giving it so thought.
“You’re seeing the full picture, alright.” Nian Fuli smacked his thigh. “The governnt wants to take out the ard forces in the villages and hamlets.
“Did the resistance group ever stay in those villages and hamlets before? Of course they did, but it’s not like this is a recent occurrence. Those villagers have no one protecting them, so what else can they do but work together to protect themselves from the robbers and ard forces? No one wants to fight when they can live stable, peaceful lives.
“Instead of wiping out the robbers and ard groups, the head instructor wants to kill the villagers instead. That’s just not right.” He sucked in a deep breath. “The Constabulary is going to wipe out a hamlet that is under suspicion of housing resistance group mbers the day after tomorrow. The head instructor wanted
to lead the team.”
“What happened?” Yu Wan asked anxiously.
“For so reason, Che Lie ca to
this afternoon and was much more polite than he usually is. He said that he gave the task to soone else. If I had to say it, I’m glad I don’t have to go. I don’t want to take any part in such a monstrous thing.”
While they were talking, soone knocked on their door and that person shouted, “Brigade Commander Nian, soone is here to see you!”
Nian Fuli cursed under his breath. “Who’d co at this hour...”
He went out and exchanged a few words with the person outside before coming back in. He had a strange look on his face as he looked at Chen Chuan. “Che Lie is here, and he said... that he wants to see you, Xiao Chuan.”
Reviews
All reviews (0)